W.A.T.E.R. – a structured approach for training on advanced measurement and experimental research

W.A.T.E.R. stands for Workshop on Advanced measurement Techniques and Experimental Research. It is an initiative started in 2016, in the scope of the Experimental Methods and Instrumentation (EMI) committee of the International Association for Hydroenvironment Research (IAHR) aimed to advance the use of experimental techniques in hydraulics and fluid mechanics research. It provides a structured approach for the learning and training platform to postgraduate students, young researchers, and professionals with an experimental background in fluid mechanics. It offers an opportunity to learn about state-of-the-art instrumentation and measurement techniques and the latest developments in the field by partnering with manufacturers. The W.A.T.E.R. brings together academics, instrumentation manufacturers, and public sectors in a structured setting to share knowledge and to learn from good practices. It is about training people that already have certain knowledge and skill level but need to go deeper and/or wider in the field of measurement and experimental research.

The role of artificial photo backgrounds of shelter dogs on pet profile clicking and the perception of sociability

With the increasing prevalence of technology, the internet is often the first step for potential pet owners searching for an adoptable dog. However, best practices for the online portrayal of shelter and foster dogs remain unclear. Different online photo backgrounds appearing on adoption websites for shelter dogs may impact adoption speed by influencing viewer interest. Online clicking behaviour on pet profiles and human-directed sociability, broadly defined, has been previously linked to increased adoption likelihood. Therefore, the objective of this study was to determine the relationship between photo backgrounds of shelter dogs and online clicking as well as perceived human-directed sociability. In a virtual experiment, 680 participants were asked to rank the sociability and friendliness of four different adoptable dogs on a scale from 0–10. The photo background of each dog was digitally altered and randomly assigned to four experimental background conditions: 1) outdoor, 2) home indoor, 3) in-kennel, and 4) plain coloured. As a proxy for adoption interest, a link to the dog’s adoption profile was presented on each slide and the clicking behaviour of participants on this link was recorded. Mixed logistic regression and Poisson models revealed that background did not affect participants’ link-clicking behaviour (chisq = 3.55, df = 3, p = .314) nor perceptions of sociability (statistic = 6.19, df = 3, p = .103). Across all backgrounds, only 4.74% of presented slides culminated in participant link-clicking. Sociability scores also did not predict link clicking. Assessment of participant-related factors and dog ID revealed that link-clicking and sociability scores of photographs were influenced by differences between dogs themselves and unaffected by participants’ awareness of study hypotheses. We conclude that artificial background types did not affect participant responses. The results demonstrate the importance of empirical data in making marketing decisions in animal shelters. Understanding which aspects of online marketing materials impact viewer interest will provide guidance for both animal shelter personnel and foster families to improve the speed of adoption of the animals in their care.

The role of artificial photo backgrounds of shelter dogs on pet profile clicking and the perception of sociability

With the increasing prevalence of technology, the internet is often the first step for potential pet owners searching for an adoptable dog. However, best practices for the online portrayal of shelter and foster dogs remain unclear. Different online photo backgrounds appearing on adoption websites for shelter dogs may impact adoption speed by influencing viewer interest. Online clicking behaviour on pet profiles and human-directed sociability, broadly defined, has been previously linked to increased adoption likelihood. Therefore, the objective of this study was to determine the relationship between photo backgrounds of shelter dogs and online clicking as well as perceived human-directed sociability. In a virtual experiment, 680 participants were asked to rank the sociability and friendliness of four different adoptable dogs on a scale from 0-10. The photo background of each dog was digitally altered and randomly assigned to four experimental background conditions: 1) outdoor, 2) home indoor, 3) in-kennel indoor, and 4) plain coloured. As a proxy for adoption interest, a link to the dog's adoption profile was presented on each slide and the clicking behaviour of participants on this link was recorded. Mixed logistic regression and poisson models revealed that background did not affect participants' link-clicking behaviour ( chisq = 3.55, df = 3, p = .314 ) nor perceptions of sociability ( statistic = 6.19, df = 3, p = .103 ). Across all backgrounds, only 4.74% of presented slides culminated in participant link-clicking. Sociability scores also did not predict link clicking. Assessment of participant-related factors and dog ID revealed that link-clicking and sociability scores of photographs were influenced by differences between dogs themselves and unaffected by participants' awareness of study hypotheses. We conclude that artificial background types did not affect participant responses. The results demonstrate the importance of empirical data in making marketing decisions in animal shelters. Understanding which aspects of online marketing materials impact viewer interest will provide guidance for both animal shelter personnel and foster families to improve speed of adoption of the animals in their care.

Theory of critical distances: A discussion on concepts and applications

Theory of Critical Distances (TCD) collects several methods adopted in failure prediction of components provided with stress concentration features. The idea of evaluating stress effect in a zone rather than in a single point was proposed decades ago but, only thanks to relatively recent works, TCD concepts showed to be a successful extension of Linear Elastic Fracture Mechanics (LEFM), able to assess strength and fatigue life. The increasing computational power has made Finite Element Method (FEM) widespread, hence stress fields can be easily extracted and used as input data for fatigue post-processing and durability analyses. In this scenario, TCD reveals as a powerful tool which, thanks to the introduction of a single material parameter (critical distance, [Formula: see text]), integrates classical fracture models by considering the presence of microscale phenomena acting in fracture process. In this sense, TCD behaves as a link between continuum mechanics and LEFM. Modalities and reasons for this connection to occur are interesting points of further investigations. Literature on TCD and its theoretical-experimental background is quite extended, nevertheless few industrial applications are available in literature to the best of authors’ knowledge. In this paper, an overview of concepts and applications related to TCD are reported highlighting the relevance of theoretical arguments in actual applications.

The LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) radioactivity and cleanliness control programs

LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) is a second-generation direct dark matter experiment with spin-independent WIMP-nucleon scattering sensitivity above $${1.4 \times 10^{-48}}\, {\hbox {cm}}^{2}$$ 1.4 × 10 - 48 cm 2 for a WIMP mass of $${40}\, \hbox {GeV}/{\hbox {c}}^{2}$$ 40 GeV / c 2 and a $${1000}\, \hbox {days}$$ 1000 days exposure. LZ achieves this sensitivity through a combination of a large $${5.6}\, \hbox {t}$$ 5.6 t fiducial volume, active inner and outer veto systems, and radio-pure construction using materials with inherently low radioactivity content. The LZ collaboration performed an extensive radioassay campaign over a period of six years to inform material selection for construction and provide an input to the experimental background model against which any possible signal excess may be evaluated. The campaign and its results are described in this paper. We present assays of dust and radon daughters depositing on the surface of components as well as cleanliness controls necessary to maintain background expectations through detector construction and assembly. Finally, examples from the campaign to highlight fixed contaminant radioassays for the LZ photomultiplier tubes, quality control and quality assurance procedures through fabrication, radon emanation measurements of major sub-systems, and bespoke detector systems to assay scintillator are presented.

Suppression of Penning discharges between the KATRIN spectrometers

The KArlsruhe TRItium Neutrino experiment (KATRIN) aims to determine the effective electron (anti)-neutrino mass with a sensitivity of 0.2eV/c$$^2$$ 2 by precisely measuring the endpoint region of the tritium $$\beta $$ β -decay spectrum. It uses a tandem of electrostatic spectrometers working as magnetic adiabatic collimation combined with an electrostatic (MAC-E) filters. In the space between the pre-spectrometer and the main spectrometer, creating a Penning trap is unavoidable when the superconducting magnet between the two spectrometers, biased at their respective nominal potentials, is energized. The electrons accumulated in this trap can lead to discharges, which create additional background electrons and endanger the spectrometer and detector section downstream. To counteract this problem, “electron catchers” were installed in the beamline inside the magnet bore between the two spectrometers. These catchers can be moved across the magnetic-flux tube and intercept on a sub-ms time scale the stored electrons along their magnetron motion paths. In this paper, we report on the design and the successful commissioning of the electron catchers and present results on their efficiency in reducing the experimental background.

A Simplified Methodology to Evaluate the Design Specifications of Hydraulic Components

The fatigue of a hydraulic component inherently varies due to various factors that can be divided into two categories: structural and load spectrum variability. The effects of both variabilities must be considered when determining fatigue life. Compared with the structural variability, determining the variability in the load spectrums is more difficult because the service conditions are complicated and the measurements of the load parameters are slow and expensive. The problem that arises when studying the fatigue behaviour of such components is the transferability of short data samples from real-life load histories, which are application-dependant, to laboratory test methods. Derived from the experimental background and know-how of the authors, this paper proposes a methodology that allows the definition and establishment of the hydraulic cylinder design specificactions, while taking into account the probabilistic characterisation of the load spectrum variability. This methodology could be extrapolated to other hydraulic or mechanical components.